West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-09-23

Oh u U1Ouuldlu, uio SoSaPS 'AOA- NS'
must be considered but little short
of the miraculous. We had had IA
vorable reports of his case from his
physician, DIR. B. B. Ransom, but we
were not prepared to see him move
about as briskly as if nothing in
particular had happened. We have
not heard lately from the engine.
On last Saturday we accompanied
the Bolivar Glee Club to the battle
field of Antietam to see the unwilling
of a monument to one hundred and
sixty-two members of the goth n.
Y. (Turner) regiment, who were
killed in the great battle there.
Just quarter of a century ago, and
who sleep with four thousand, five
hundred and twenty-one others in
the beautiful National Cemetery at
Sharpsburg. The Bolivar Glee Club
is composed of some of the most
reputable of our young people, and
in their company we enjoyed our
selves hugely, for though ours was
the one gray head in the crowd, we
are thankful that our heart is still
Young enough to relish the treat
musical and social-which their
very pleasant society afforded. we
cannot venture to describe the i'm
pressive ceremonies at the battle
ground in the limited space which
YOU allot to us. Suffice it to say,
that the whole affair was creditable
to every one participating in 1t, but
we cannot omit mention of the pleas
inc fact that ex-Contederates at
tended in large numbers and entered
with n will into the spirit of the oc-
casion. After the ceremonies, and
when the participants had mostly
adjourned for dinner, we took a
stroll through the highly ornament
ed cemetery and as far as possible
let our spirit commune with the
four thousand, six hundred and
eighty three heroes who await there
the Judgment Day in ranks regular as
parade. while the colossal statue
of the ideal soldier, equipped with
all the paraphernalia of an infan-
try-man, stands guard over their
peaceful slumbers. We took special
interest in reading the Inscriptions
on the head stones, and our magma
ton wove many fanclful history
for the sleepers. Judging from the
names, we often found-to borrow n
thought from the historian Alison
the grave Bavarian peasant resting
alongside the mercurial Son of
"Green Erin of Streams" and the
fierce Scottish Highlander far, far
away from the bones of his ances-
tors in his native Businesses, accept
ING in death the company of the
hated Sassanagh. But the saddest
of all were the unlettcred graves of
the unknown victims, for it appear
ed as if these poor fellows were de-
priyed of full companionship, even
with the dead. Grave No. 7O4, in
the New York lot, has inscribed at
its head the portentious name of
"Weneptheous Corstiruppleigutt,"
and while the scene was untavorable
to levity, we could not for the life of
us help thinking that death, even on
a battlefield. must have been relief
to 4 man afflicted with such 4 name.
On one side of this grave lies John
Duffy, and on the other Patrick
McMahon, and the comicality which
we have inherited honestly from a
long line Of Irish ancestry was too
much for the solemnity of the occa-
sion, forcing us to imagine our Gel
tic friends trying to pronounce
their neighbours name in any con-
versation permitted to them under
the circumstances. If any one cen
sures us for our apparent lightness
in the last two sentences, we beg to
assure him that. while our natural
buoyancy is ever asserting itself,our
thoughts were solemn enough while
we were on that stroll in the GENE
terry, the more so as in the course OF
Nature the time cannot be far off
when WE, too, will occupy narrow
and perhaps nameless home as far
from our clan as the HIGH ander at
Antietam. Y. X.